I'm not impressed

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Back to Brazil!

I'm going back to Rio to prepare for Daniel Weichel with Crezio, thanks to the generosity of my sponsors - Blue Velvet Gentlemen's club and GT Security. For those of you who don't know of Crezio, check out some of his old fights on Youtube from back in the days of headbutts and openweights -

Crezio X Johil De Oliveira

This fight is heavily edited, maybe the tape was damaged, I don't know, so you miss the speed of his takedowns, but just look at how he transitions, so fast and effortless.



Crezio X Indio Rachkal

Indio was the reigning Brazilian heavyweight MuayThai champion at the time - Crezio was about 77kg, making this suplex and mount all the more impressive. Look how he uses the grapevines.

Irving vs. Weichel at S+S 8, Oct 26th

It's on! I'm taking on Germany's finest, Daniel Weichel, on October 26th. Although Weichel is coming off a loss, it was to Dan Hardy, and he boasts an 18-5-0 record so he's a top challenger for the European title.

Check him out here in a bout from German TUF style reality show MAX -



and another from some other show -



I reckon it'll be another stormer.

Notes from ringside

Recommended reading if you have a minute or two to kill and you'd prefer something thought provoking/inspiring/interesting to browsing the gossip column of Heat magazine.
Hywel's blog is well worth checking up on.

Crazy 88

http://www.fightmatrix.com/mma-ranks/welterweight/

Fightmatrix.com has me in at number 88 in their World rankings, a couple of slots above Phil Baroni. Up yours Cage Rage!

Downtime = down time?

Shark or sheep?

You train, 8 weeks of pain, denial, sacrifice, anxiety, intensity, boredom, excitement, more boredom, more pain, repeat and repeat; nerves, fatigue and an unerring sense of purpose.
Then what happens? 17 minutes maximum and it's all over. The punch you threw a thousand times on the pads, a thousand times in the air, a thousand times in your mind; maybe it came out once, twice even, or maybe not at all. You win, you lose maybe, but regardless of the outcome it's in the books. Once it's gone, it's gone, and with it your raison d'etre.

Are you a shark or a sheep? Shark's have to keep their constant forward momentum, or drown in the lack of progress. Losing the impetus to move onwards, even for a short time is fatal.
So what next?

I need a name, I need to know someone is out there training to hurt me. Counting down the days, then hours, and finally the minutes till we face off. To have a perfect stranger picturing my face on the pads his coach is holding up and for me to do the same.